What do you call your baby?

[anamika]

Apropos of nothing, I was just wondering how many people call their DCs by their given name?
Maybe I have to much time on my hands (Not!!) but thinking back to the last 10 weeks since I had my DD, I just realized that I have never called my baby by her given name. She's always li'l dear or Mommy's pet or Mommy's love (you get it). It's a shame too since I love her names!
I'm wondering if I'm the only weird mom who does this? If not, when did you start calling DC by their proper name? Now I'm worried that she won't know her real name (since Daddy has his own special names too). Unfortunately in my head, she's already established as li'l dear (in Tamil) and so will be called as such for the rest of her life!
Just curious :)

[rrosen]

I do call her by her name but, I also call her, sweet pea, angel face, peanut, and Elle. To me she is all of those names.

[murpheyblue]

I address her by her given name but when I talk about her to DH I ususally call her by her nicknames are Bean/Beaner (when she was born she always look like a little bean when she was curled up and sleeping).

[Judegirl]

Our poor baby has about a million nicknames; I sometimes worry that she won't know her name! We do call her Riordan, but we also call her:

Rory
Reed
Reedy
Monkey
Monkeynose
Tiger
Munchkin (and Munchkinnose...you get the idea)
Monster
Rorypants
Babygirl
Rorypot
Chuckles

I'm sure there are more, but that's all I can remember right now. :)

Jude

[lisaE]

His name is Connor, but we always call him Connie. That's in addition to his many terms-of-endearment nicknames.

[chlobo]

Our two most frequently used nicknames are:

Boo
The Divine Miss "I"

[mudder17]

I think we rarely called DD by her given name for the first 4 months or so. I think when she started being more aware of sounds I started consciously using her name otherwise she might never learn to respond to her name, LOL!

But we call her

Kaya
kiddo
kidski
monkey (you should hear her screech like a monkey--very funny)
monkey child
buttski
babester
babies
cutie
cutie patootie
sideways looking kid
piglet
chunklet
screecher creature

and probably a bunch of others I can't recall at the moment. :P

Eileen

Mother of Beautiful Kaya, www.chemicalgraphics.com/kaya
http://www.babysfirstsite.org/newtickers/ticker/16994.birthday.png

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_amber_9m.gif Breastfed 9 months and counting

[jbowman]

I rarely call my DD by her given name: Elizabeth. We usually call her Ellie or the "the bean" (as in Ellie Bean)!

[kristine_elen]

Bunny

Butt-bomb

Bud

Stinky

But he knows his name is Jack. That's what he calls himself.

[AvasMama]

You would never guess all the time I spent agonizing over Ava's name (which I love) since I never call her by it. Now that she is almost 1, I am trying to call her by her given name more often, but for the most part she is...

Pea (her name in utero)
Bubba (started out as Bubble, but changed to Bubba once Ava started making the ba-ba-ba sound)
Plum (and variations thereof: Plumkins, Plummy)

The most common now is Plummy Lou, Plummy Lulu, or -- in honor of the Grinch -- Plummy Lou Who :)

Lou/Lulu get appended to other nicknames as well, so we also call her Bubba Lulu, Ava Lou, etc. I have no idea how this all started, but I am really worried that someday she will tell someone her name is Bubba Lou and not the infinitely classier Ava Grace!

[Marisa6826]

Well, Sophie's full name is Sophia, so depending on how much she's in trouble, it's usually Sophie or Sophia. She's always introduced to people as Sophia though.

We also call her Sophie-Soph pretty regularly in addition to "Lamby". As a baby, her cries sounded like a little lamb bleating, so we started calling her the Lamb (as in, "how's the Lamb?") and it's stuck ;).

Amelia's nickname is Mia, and she's also known as the "Lambette" till a term of endearment reveals itself. :)

-m

[RwnMayfair]

Now that Taran's gotten older, I do call him by his name more often than I used to. But he still has a ton of nicknames as well. Let's see, he's got:
Punky Monkey
The Taranator
Mr. Taran (it took me awhile to break myself of putting the Mr. in front of his name whenever I wanted to use his name)
T-man (my husband uses this one)
Mr. T (again, I can thank my husband for this one)
Sweetie Boy
My Sweet Boy (As in, "Hey, my sweet boy!" when I greet him.)
Silly Boy
Wiggle Worm

I know he has others, but they're not coming to me right now.

One that's retired now that he's a bit older that I still think is funny:
Mr. Squidgee-Pants (due to the breastfed poops he would produce)

But I'm pretty sure he knows his name his Taran, though he loves being called Punky Monkey. I doubt he'll appreciate it when he's older, but hey, my mother still calls me by the nickname she gave me when I was a baby. ::grin::

-Melissa

Taran, November 20, 2003

http://lilypie.com/baby2/031120/0/5/0/-5/.png
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_gold_12m.gif - Twelve months and counting!

[kijip]

Toby's name is Tobias, which we never use.

We also call him Tobster.

[hez]

Fun names you all use!

Payton's usually just plain old Payton, but occasionally is Baby Boy. Friends call him PT, Chunk-a-monk, Payt, and Magnus. The friend who calls him Magnus promised to pay for Payton's college education if we would name him that. I'm proud to say we declined that offer ;)

[Buffys Mommy]

Well let's see...

Sarah is also known as Peanut, Sweat Pea, Little Miss, Stinker, Princess, Baby Sarah, and many other names over the last year.

Oh, and Buffy - but only by my sister.

Tammie
Momma to Sarah Michelle 10/13/03

]http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_gold_12m.gif[/img][/url]

[deborah_r]

I think she will "grow into" her name! I had a hard time calling my son by his name at first...not that I couldn't, I just didn't think to say it. As he got older and got more personality, it felt right to call him by his name - I started connecting his name to the person he is becoming, if that makes any sense.

[tarahsolazy]

DHand I frequently call DS Forrest, but also call him:

Fory (this is his "official" nickname)
Fory-Lad
The Lad
Bitty Man
Bits
Monstro

[amazz]

We do use Kami but more often than not lately we have started calling her Kammers. :)

Angela
Mama to Kami Allyse (10/10/04)
A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on. ~Carl Sandburg

[Corie]

My husband and I have called her Monkey since the day she was born.
She will answer to both her given name and to Monkey.

Corie

[KGoes]

We call DD "The Bug" or "Bug" and she answers to both her given name and Bug - the worst part is that when we refer to her to third parties, we sometimes refer to her as Bug, and so there are people out there who call her that as well.
I know, I know - she's going to hate me!
Kelley
DD born 7/03
And the next DD due 4/05

[babymama]

Funny, as I read your post I was thinking, "Just you wait until she starts crawling and walking!" Then you'll probably employ her given name quite a bit. We use Santiago's given name to refer to him, especially at the begining of something like..."Santiago, get back here!" "Santiago, don't climb on that!" "Santiago, what do you have in your mouth?!" "Santiago, don't put your hand in the toilet!" "Santiago, give back that baby's pacifier"
Lil Dear in front a phrases like these don't have quite the same ring. LOL!

Seriously though, I do have terms of endearment for Santiago. mostly, I call him "Sweetie Poo" and "Honey Poochie" and sometimes "Tutti Frutti". My DH calls him mostly "Gordo" (fatty) or "Gordito" (little fatty) or "Papa" and sometimes "Papito"

Lydia
Mama to Santiago, born 11/16/03

[Puddy73]

We usually call DD Bunny or Bean. She hasn't quite grown into Annabelle yet, although we use her full name to get her attention when she is doing something that she shouldn't be doing - which is quite often these days!

Jennifer
Mommy to Annabelle Mae 9/8/03

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

[tinkerbell1217]

My oldest DD, Kaitlyn Elizabeth has been called Katie most of her life and for a brief time, Katie Beth by her great grandma. My DS is Timothy Michael, and he has always been called Timmy. Youngest DD is Jillian Dora Frances (a mouthful, I know, but we had to honor both great grandmas) and her NN is Jilly or Jillybean.

[Sarah1]

Sweet pea, sweetie pie, pooker.

I have always made a point to use her name a lot, though, and she started telling people her name pretty early on...but who knows if that's why? :)

[nohomama]

Lola is Lola, Loly Gaucamole, Lola-tita, Lo-lo, Bean, Sweets, and a dozen other things that I can't think of at the moment. In utero she was schnecken (snail in German).

Astrid is Astrid, Faaaaan-tastrid, Nudel, Noodley-Oddle, or Astrid Nudel Ruth. While still in the belly she was Baby Gogo. Her sister coined that one.